Son of a bitch. I just lost a huge post about Brian Regan's supremely awesome performance and the fact that the job fair was a waste of time (almost as expected though). So there. I have a party I'm going to later. That's all. I'm not retyping all the shit again.

Dude. I just saw a shopping-cart guy steal about four hubcaps from the back of a junk-metal-collecting truck parked outside my apartment. Man, this neighborhood rocks.

In other news, because the little brats of the neighborhood don't have school (thanks Kim and Gina), *I* have to deal with them. :) So enjoy your damn ice cream sundaes, Kim. :) I hate the kids of my neighborhood. They all need a good bitch-slapping. They act all tough and like they own the place and whatnot. There's no playing--just walking or standing around like a bunch of hoodlums. Fuckin' idiots. I hate them all. When I was growing up, in a similar neighborhood to my current one, we knew we owned the place, but there wasn't this overarching mistrust of others who lived there. Of course, there wasn't a lot of turnover in the neighborhood I grew up in, as opposed to here, where people are moving in and out of the apartments all the time.

Speaking of moving...Laz, you SHOULD move to Chicago...I might need a roommate come October anyway, depending on Butch's plans. But we'll see...that's a ways away.

Eh, otherwise, I don't know if the cops actually came to the apartment last night, but I didn't fall asleep until about 3:30am, and the dickwads were still playing, albeit quieter than before.

Oh well...I gotta walk Kazak soon, and then talk to my roommate, because he's supposedly having some get-together here tonight. Then, Brian Regan later, all the way up in Vernon Hills. But that's cool. It'll be a fun ride, and well worth it.

The police have been notified. For the third night in a row, dude and friends are playing their guitars, and even singing, after 2am. Previous nights, it didn't actually keep me awake. Tonight, it has. The previous two nights, it kept up our front neighbor, who said she called the cops last night, and they didn't really do anything about it. Whether they do anything about it or not tonight, at least this is on the record for later, if necessary. That's what I told her, too...keep calling, because at least it's evidence on record against this guy for later. Or something. Oh yeah, and their original song really sucks...that's how loud they are, I can understand some of the lyrics...here's a taste of the refrain: "Lazy eyeball, what is it you see? Lazy eyeball, blah, blah, blah, blee."

I can't wait until the end of April, which is supposedly when his lease runs out, if he doesn't get evicted by then.

So I started some seeds yesterday (Laz, I know you could care less...). A seed-starter kit (the Jiffy Greenhouse variety, with the little coin-shaped thingies that turn into little dirt packages when you add water--I had a lot of success with these last year) was only $7, so I got one, even though I have another one in Bolingbrook. I also bought some seeds, two little pots and a bag of potting soil. All that for $16.

I've started three things:
--->Alyssum, Gold Dust

--->Pepper, California Wonder

--->Quartz Burgundy Verbena

So these ought to go well on my deck, in big pots or in window boxes. I'm planning on planting a variety of things--flowers, vegetables (well, peppers, really) and some herbs, like thyme or rosemary, which I use for my pork chops and other things. It should look nice, if everything works right. I'm a little concerned about the Verbena seeds though, because they're a year or two old. Though they've been sealed in their package, I don't know if they're any good or not. We'll find out.

Meanwhile, I'm still letting my mums grow roots in the cup of water they're in. Once the roots get substantial enough to my liking (maybe after a week or two), I'll plant them in two smaller pots I bought with the potting soil. I really hope this works too. :) I'm sure you're all holding your breath. :)

I guess it's all a wash anyway, eh?

I'm referring to eating, particularly when you're staring unemployment dead in the face.

On one hand, I'm eating cheaper. Eating at home, cooking, etc. I rarely eat out at this point. It's become a Sunday ritual almost, grocery shopping. I spend no more than an average of $30 a week...that's a top-of-the-head estimate (I spent $50 when I first was laid off to stock up, but about $20-30 per week since.) I also eat at my parents' or Gina's parents' more frequently. That's free. Then, there are days when Gina cooks and I eat there (I also cook for her on some days too). So, monetarily, I've been saving. That's great. Great habit.

On the other hand, I'm eating more. I now eat breakfast, lunch (much lighter than it had been in the past), dinner and a late snack. If I go out (on occasion), that snack is not tiny, and it's likely fast or bar food. The multiplicity of my eating is good for my metabolism--keeps it churning. However, while I don't feel unhealthy, I think I have gained a few pounds lately. Although for the most part I eat pretty healthy food (no TV dinners, actually...not a TON of fried food), I do eat more I think than I did when I was employed.

The other good things: I drink more milk now and far less beer. I eat a lot more grains (other than hamburger buns) now because of the cereal I have for breakfast and the sandwiches for lunch. I eat stuff that *I* cook, including vegetables, canned or frozen, and that's good. I still eat stuff that has plenty o' preservatives in it, but certainly that's far less amount of preservatives than any fast food stuff.

The bad things: I may eat more in a day than I did, and I don't get any more exercise (yet, softball hasn't started and it's occasionally still too cold or rainy to ride my bike--that will change) to counter it. Although I am cooking things, they're not entirely the most healthy things in the world. Hamburger Helper is great, but not if I wolf down half of it. Girl Scout cookies are a fine pre-bed snack with milk, but not half a box (as I polished off last night--the peanut butter sandwich cookies--I resisted half a box of Thin Mints tonight...don't know how). Chips and salsa is fantastic for a very light lunch, but not half a bag and half the jar of salsa.

But hey...at least I'm not living on bread and water right now. Thankfully. Ah well, enough ranting on food...I'm gonna go to bed. Goodnight all.

OK...redid my finances...looks like I'll survive, assuming I don't get hurt (meaning, without health insurance, as of now). That's why I still need a full-time gig. So I'll keep looking.

That said, I'm off to Home Depot to get some seed starter mix. I gotta start some of these seeds already, it's killing me. :) All these sunny windows (not so much today though) and no plants to take advantage!

I just purchased tickets to see my favorite comedian, Brian Regan, this Friday night. He's the best. Pure hilarity. See when he's coming to a venue near you and SEE HIM! I demand it.

Otherwise, well, not much else is new. Everything really happened yesterday.

I got the ballpark job. :) Thankfully. So my part-time work concerns are taken care of. I can breathe a teensy bit easier now. But I still have to look for full-time work, in theory. Or at least semi-full-time work. One way or another, I need health insurance, ya know?

And I'm glad I found out about the ballpark job today too, because I'm supposed to call PFW and talk to them about freelance work at this point. So, because I got this ballpark job, I can only do work for them until Easter because of unemployment. That is, until I find a fulltime gig and get off unemployment. Then I can do whatever I want. :) I think PFW will need help only until about Easter anyway, so it works out, more or less. But we'll see.

Obviously, I understand what Laz is going through in not hearing from that one Chicago job. I've sent out about three dozen feelers and actual applications to jobs and have heard back from about five. All rejections. So I'm here with ya, buddy. Except, to quote "Ferris Bueller's Day Off": "I don't even have a piece of shit. I have to envy your piece of shit."

Man, I'm itching to plant. Now that I know I'll have some money coming in, I can "plan" for when I can start planting. At the F&G Show, IDOT had a display on how they're going to plant all these flowers along the highways, and there were these really pretty burgundy and gold (UrbanTherapy wedding colors!) daisy-like flowers. I asked about them, and the lady said they were---TIMEOUT ON THE FIELD!!!

I just got a call. I have an interview for an editor position next Tuesday at 1:30. It's a business-to-business magazine--straight-up trade mag type of thing...not the most interesting thing in the world, but we'll see how it goes. Yay! Or something...now I need to see which one this is of the millions that I sent in. It's one of the "confidential" ones, I know, because I would remember sending to this particular magazine.

OK...back to your regularly scheduled "life of Andy" blog...---mums. I said, what variety of mums? "They're just mums," she said, but not angrily. She didn't know what kind. Which is stupid, because there are about a million varieties, and i can't just walk into a store and say I want the burgundy daisy-like mums. But, since it was Saturday, the lady says, "Hold on," and tears off 1/4 of the plant and gives it to me. Gina laughed. I said thanks, and we walked away. I was like, great, they're gonna haul me off thinking I personally tore this off a display. I was then thinking, what am I going to do with this? Duh, I forgot that you can grow plants from cuttings. So I put the pieces in water, and they're growing roots. :) So I'll have to plant them in pots soon. That'll be so cool if it works.

Now I'm kinda excited about this interview, only because I'm curious. And I want a freakin' job already. :) Staying home has its advantages, but... :)

I'm off to walk Kazak now, and then I have a haircut appointment at 1pm. Later all...

Great. The job fair I signed up for and paid $10 to do so has all of 10 employers coming. Yippee. That's not bad, you say? Well, how about only 2 of those actually being in the Chicagoland area -- one of them is the Tribune and the other is the parent company of the Daily Herald. That means just about any job I'd be qualified for with those places is night shift. That's what I wanted to avoid. So we'll see what happens.

Today I did some laundry--socks, my white dress shirt and the new undershirts I bought. I like to wash a lot of things when I first buy them, for some reason. Unless I'm worried they'll fade. The undershirts are white, so if they faded, that would be strange.

I also went to Home Depot to dream a little bit about warmer weather and to scope out window boxes and big planters for my deck, so I can plant flowers (and veggies/herbs). It's not so expensive as I thought. But I can't spend anything right now on that, obviously.

Otherwise, that's about all that's new at the very moment. More when applicable.

You know what? I went pretty much without Internet since mid-afternoon Friday and somehow survived. Interesting. Thus ends that thread.

The interview went pretty well from what I could tell. We spent the first 15 minutes talking fantasy football of all things. Then we talked regular football and general sports stuff. Then we started talking about the old savings and loan banks in association with where I grew up and whatnot. Anyway, the job sounds cool enough, and the guy is willing to keep me under the minimum amount that I can make while on unemployment. That's great.

I just realized that today, Sunday, my former coworkers had to work. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Sorry guys, if you're reading this. :) At least you have some money and comfort on your sides. :)

After the interview, I went to Gina's school to see her classroom and the school and help her clean up and prepare her room for this week. It was cool, but no big deal. I hadn't been in a Chicago public grammar school since kindergarten and Nightengale by my house. Her school looked similar to Nightengale, truthfully.

I then cooked pierogis, fish sticks and steamed broccoli for dinner. And then we graded papers and watched "Major League" and whatever was on TV after that.

Saturday, we went to the Chicago Flower & Garden Show in the morning with Luis and Monica. After that, we stopped at Cafe Iberico, but Gina felt sick, so we went home a bit earlier than expected. The show was MUCH BETTER last year than this year, but it was still a decent show. I picked up some tips and saw an interesting variety of chrysanthemum that I would like to plant in the future. Whatever, you guys don't really care. :)

Saturday night, we met Tim and Melissa at Alumni Club out in Schaumburg. That was all right, yet marginally uneventful, really. We were out pretty late but managed to get up this morning for church and then dinner at my parents' house. We then headed to Kohl's, which is having an enormous sale...I needed some socks and undershirts and found two pairs of shorts (I have hardly any shorts) that we bought. And Tim needed some things too, according to Melissa, anyway.

I've gotten a couple more rejections, including one from the Chicago Historical Society, where I'd actually really have liked to work. Oh well...onward and upward, I guess. And on to another week of unemployment.